Movies like What If...? (2008)
The best movies like What If...? (2008) are Love & Sex (2000), He Said, She Said (1991) and The Best Years of a Life (2019). If What If...? hooked you with its drama and romance, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedI Can't Think Straight (2008)7.5/10 from 341 votes
- NewestAtropia (2025)Released 2025
- In FrenchThe Best Years of a Life (2019)Also in French
Love & Sex (2000)
When her rather explicit copy is rejected, magazine journalist Kate is asked by her editor to come up with an article on loving relationships instead, and to do so by the end of the day. This gets Kate thinking back over her own various experiences, and to wondering if she is in much of a position to write on the subject.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHe Said, She Said (1991)
Womanising, right-wing Dan Hanson and quiet, liberal Lorie Bryer work for the Baltimore Sun. Rivals for the job of new writer of a vacant column, the paper ends up instead printing their very different opinions alongside each other, which leads to a similarly combative local TV show. At the same time their initial indifference to each other looks like it may evolve into something more romantic.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Best Years of a Life (2019)
They knew each other long ago: a man and a woman whose dazzling and unexpected romance captured in the now-iconic film revolutionized our understanding of love. Today, the former race car driver seems lost in the pathways of his memory. In order to help him, his son seeks out the woman his father wasn’t able to cherish but whom he constantly revisits in his thoughts and dreams. Anne reunites with Jean-Louis and their story picks up where they left it…
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHow to Please a Woman (2022)
When her all-male house-cleaning business gets out of control, a mature woman must embrace her own sexuality, if she is to make a new life for herself.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRendezvous in Paris (1995)
Three stories of love and coincidence around the theme of dates in Paris.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAnaïs in Love (2021)
A young woman struggling to stay on top of everything in her life meets a married publisher and begins an affair with him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Well-Digger's Daughter (1940)
A rural maiden's two suitors go off to war, leaving her pregnant.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisA California Christmas: City Lights (2021)
Follows Callie and Joseph one year after they fell in love, now running a dairy farm and winery, but their romance is threatened when business and family obligations call Joseph back to the city.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisXX/XY (2002)
Three friends begin a dangerous three-way relationship that spirals out of control, leading to dire consequences that haunt them ten years later.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Good House (2021)
When wry New England realtor Hildy Good rekindles a romance with her old high-school flame, Frank Getchell, it ignites long-buried emotions and family secrets that propel Hildy toward a reckoning with the one person she's been avoiding for decades: herself. Based on the best-selling novel by Ann Leary.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisChéri (2009)
The son of a courtesan retreats into a fantasy world after being forced to end his relationship with the older woman who educated him in the ways of love.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWalking and Talking (1996)
Just as Amelia thinks she's over her anxiety and insecurity, her best friend announces her engagement, bringing her anxiety and insecurity right back.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Diary of a Chambermaid (1946)
Celestine, the chamber-maid, has a new job in the country, at the Lanlaires. She has decided to use her beauty to seduce a wealthy man, but Mr. Lanlaire is not a right choice: the house is firmly controlled by Madame Lanlaire, helped by the strange valet Joseph. Then she tries the neighbour, former officer Mauger. This seems to work. But soon the son of the Lanlaires comes back. He is young, attractive and does not share his mother's antirepublican opinions. So Celestine's beauty attracts Captain Mauger, young Georges Lanlaire, and Joseph. Three men, from three different social classes, with three different conceptions of life. Will Celestine be able to convince Georges of her sincerity?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisStrictly Sexual (2008)
Two successful women, sick and tired of dating and relationships, decide to keep two young men in their pool house for strictly sexual purposes.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMuch Ado About Nothing (2011)
Two young lovers, Claudio and Hero, are to be married imminently but the devious scheming of a resentful Prince looks set to thwart the nuptials. Meanwhile, marriage seems inconceivable for reluctant lovers Beatrice and Benedick whose endless witty sparring threatens to keep them apart forever. Directed by Josie Rourke, Artistic Director of the Donmar Warehouse, Much Ado About Nothing is one of Shakespeare’s great plays and reminds us all of the failings and triumphs of the human condition in our never ending search for perfect love.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisMy Brilliant Career (1979)
A young woman who is determined to maintain her independence finds herself at odds with her family who wants her to tame her wild side and get married.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMy King (2015)
Tony is admitted to a rehabilitation center after a serious ski accident. Dependent on the medical staff and pain relievers, she takes time to look back on a turbulent relationship that she experienced with Georgio.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisNot Easily Broken (2009)
A car accident and shifting affections test the bond between a married couple.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisI Can't Think Straight (2008)
Tala, a London-based Palestinian, is preparing for her elaborate Middle Eastern wedding when she meets Leyla, a young British Indian woman who is dating her best friend. Spirited Christian Tala and shy Muslim Leyla could not be more different from each other, but the attraction is immediate and goes deeper than friendship. But Tala is not ready to accept the implications of the choice her heart has made for her and escapes back to Jordan, while Leyla tries to move on with her new-found life, to the shock of her tradition-loving parents. As Tala's wedding day approaches, simmering tensions come to boiling point and the pressure mounts for Tala to be true to herself.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMy First Time (2012)
Zachary is 20 years old. Dark and independent, he collects amorous conquests and school failure. Sarah is 18 years old. First class, fragile, she fills her emotional gaps with perfect control of his life. Nothing should close and yet, the year of the tank, for six months, they will live a love against which nothing can be, the true, the big one that marks a life forever.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRiding in Cars with Boys (2001)
In 1965, a young woman with dreams of becoming a writer has a son at the age of 15 and struggles to make things work with the drug-addicted father.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAtropia (2025)
When an aspiring actress in a military role-playing facility falls in love with a soldier cast as an insurgent, their unsimulated emotions threaten to derail the performance.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy & drama
Your Mother and I (2016)
Johnna's dad changed the world. Or so he says. Whilst Johnna and her dad are talking, they can't seem to connect, each growing more and more frustrated with one another, revolving around one another in their own orbits.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy & drama
W-A-L-K (2015)
During a lazy Montreal summer day, preteen Clara decides to master the art of walking in high-heel shoes. It would probably be an easier undertaking if she didn't have to take the dog, Eddie, along for the ride.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & comedy
Rye Lane (2023)
Two twenty-somethings, both reeling from bad break-ups, connect over the course of an eventful day in South London – helping each other deal with their nightmare exes, and potentially restoring their faith in romance.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisNobody Loves Me (1994)
On the brink of her 30th birthday, Fanny feels the door to marital happiness closing on her. She is obsessed with death and even visits evening classes on dying, so it seems fitting that she encounters a skeleton in the malfunctioning elevator of her apartment building. The skeleton is her neighbour Orfeo, a Black, gay, self-declared psychic, who convinces her that she is about to meet "him". But is it really Lothar, the new yuppie apartment manager ...?
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & comedy
The Grandmother (1922)
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & romance
Kroko (2003)
She is the blonde poison of the backyards, the femme fatale of the Wedding side street. Coolness hangs heavy on her eyelids. It could be mistaken for boredom - if it weren't for her tough tone of voice and her willingness to ice-coldly clear her opponents out of the way. One of her license-free joyrides results in an accident. A court orders her to do community service in a shared flat for the disabled, which she finds an imposition. But the "normalos" she lives with aren't that great either, and it seems as if Kroko finds something in the "spastics" that she lacks in her everyday life.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Erl King (1931)
A young man races to save his son's life, but death – incarnated in the child's imagination as the titular Erl King – calls unceasingly.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Secret Garden (1993)
A young British girl born and reared in India loses her neglectful parents in an earthquake. She is returned to England to live at her uncle's castle. Her uncle is very distant due to the loss of his wife ten years before. Neglected once again, she begins exploring the estate and discovers a garden that has been locked and forgotten. Aided by one of the servants' boys, she begins restoring the garden, and eventually discovers some other secrets of the manor.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like What If...??
The closest matches to What If...? are Love & Sex (2000), He Said, She Said (1991) and The Best Years of a Life (2019). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after What If...??
Start with Love & Sex (2000), the closest match to What If...?.
What is the highest-rated movie like What If...??
I Can't Think Straight (2008), rated 7.5/10 by 341 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like What If...??
Atropia (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there French movies like What If...??
Yes: The Best Years of a Life (2019), Rendezvous in Paris (1995) and Anaïs in Love (2021).
How are movies similar to What If...? chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside What If...?, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.